faith was of a magnitude that he wrapped his mind at least partially around the divine Warrior and
Enemy also being the perfect divine Advocate and Intercessor. This was one more step in peeling back the layers of Job’s faith. His unshakeable confidence in God’s absolute sovereignty undergirded each succeeding declaration in its context. For the past three chapters, Job’s thinking was in the judicial framework. He was about to add another dimension.
Sidebar - Is this the end of the discussion? No. There are those [check Habel, Balentine, Newsom, others] who presume that Job could never draw the identity of his known Enemy, God, together with an
Advocate, also God. That was logically irreconcilable and would tax his cognitive capacities in the …show more content…
This word is primarily used in poetic texts and often indicates extraordinary visions of God. See
Isaiah 1:1; Amos 1:1. When Job returned to his eyes “seeing,” it is the more common ra’ah. In light of this, it is a struggle to decide whether to use upper case when presenting our translation. Is it Redeemer or redeemer? whom I shall see for myself; and my eyes have seen and not a stranger.
My inmost parts (“kidneys”) are spent/exhausted in my breast.
This obviously needs some clarification! Of all Job’s pleas for a mediating figure, none is better known or more beloved than this. It is, however, also ambiguous. Job knew (the Hebrew is emphatic) that his redeemer was living. The title redeemer drew on Israelite redemption theology which had at its core the love of kin that would prompt a relative to buy back and deliver to freedom someone bound in slavery.
Even though Job seems to have lived outside that context, his story as we have it was infused with the spirit and worldview of the people of Israel. Their foundational experience was the Exodus on which all the other references to redemption build. In the story of Ruth, for example, we encounter the practice of the kinsman, Boaz, buying back Naomi’s property and acquiring Ruth as a wife at the same …show more content…
That is the paradox with which Job wrestled throughout and his expressions are founded in his fledgling grasp of God’s boundless sovereignty. Thus, this was not hope for his future resurrection in the end times but hope that God would restore and vindicate him in this life.
One more thought from our New Testament perspective - the astounding truth that Job may have grasped regarding God’s role as Defender, Redeemer, and Kinsman for His people finds its completion in the finished work of Jesus Christ. In the incarnation, God identified with all of humankind’s Jobs and took on the entirety of their sufferings. While those who follow Christ will suffer in this world, He is their
Redeemer and Defender before the Father’s throne. Job is the earliest expression of salvation through suffering. Absent Friend
As Job hurtled along his trajectory, he grasped at the possibilities afforded by a lawsuit of sorts but the farther he traveled on that route, the more we see his deeper longing simply for the relationship that he had enjoyed with God to be restored. The beginnings of that yearning appear almost immediately. There is an emotional and poignant tone to his passing thought that God might seek him after his death
Enemy also being the perfect divine Advocate and Intercessor. This was one more step in peeling back the layers of Job’s faith. His unshakeable confidence in God’s absolute sovereignty undergirded each succeeding declaration in its context. For the past three chapters, Job’s thinking was in the judicial framework. He was about to add another dimension.
Sidebar - Is this the end of the discussion? No. There are those [check Habel, Balentine, Newsom, others] who presume that Job could never draw the identity of his known Enemy, God, together with an
Advocate, also God. That was logically irreconcilable and would tax his cognitive capacities in the …show more content…
This word is primarily used in poetic texts and often indicates extraordinary visions of God. See
Isaiah 1:1; Amos 1:1. When Job returned to his eyes “seeing,” it is the more common ra’ah. In light of this, it is a struggle to decide whether to use upper case when presenting our translation. Is it Redeemer or redeemer? whom I shall see for myself; and my eyes have seen and not a stranger.
My inmost parts (“kidneys”) are spent/exhausted in my breast.
This obviously needs some clarification! Of all Job’s pleas for a mediating figure, none is better known or more beloved than this. It is, however, also ambiguous. Job knew (the Hebrew is emphatic) that his redeemer was living. The title redeemer drew on Israelite redemption theology which had at its core the love of kin that would prompt a relative to buy back and deliver to freedom someone bound in slavery.
Even though Job seems to have lived outside that context, his story as we have it was infused with the spirit and worldview of the people of Israel. Their foundational experience was the Exodus on which all the other references to redemption build. In the story of Ruth, for example, we encounter the practice of the kinsman, Boaz, buying back Naomi’s property and acquiring Ruth as a wife at the same …show more content…
That is the paradox with which Job wrestled throughout and his expressions are founded in his fledgling grasp of God’s boundless sovereignty. Thus, this was not hope for his future resurrection in the end times but hope that God would restore and vindicate him in this life.
One more thought from our New Testament perspective - the astounding truth that Job may have grasped regarding God’s role as Defender, Redeemer, and Kinsman for His people finds its completion in the finished work of Jesus Christ. In the incarnation, God identified with all of humankind’s Jobs and took on the entirety of their sufferings. While those who follow Christ will suffer in this world, He is their
Redeemer and Defender before the Father’s throne. Job is the earliest expression of salvation through suffering. Absent Friend
As Job hurtled along his trajectory, he grasped at the possibilities afforded by a lawsuit of sorts but the farther he traveled on that route, the more we see his deeper longing simply for the relationship that he had enjoyed with God to be restored. The beginnings of that yearning appear almost immediately. There is an emotional and poignant tone to his passing thought that God might seek him after his death